Going "OLD SCHOOL"

Thirty years ago people met each other face to face. Every encounter was based on chance. Maybe you set out to meet someone. Or finding a friend may have been the furthest thing from your mind. It could have happened anywhere. A church, school, the library, a grocery store, a gym, the 7/11, a bar or coffee shop, at work, a bowling alley, walking down the street, at a red-light or any combination of these would make a great first meeting place. Internet dating sites have tried to become the new "MEETING PLACE." But all they have really done is to take the leg-work out of running into someone. But again somethings never change. How well do you really know someone? If you meet someone today who interests you.Their background is only a couple of mouse clicks away. Regardless of how you met them! Are they married? Divorced? A convict? Do you have Mr. Rogers or Jeffery Dahmer standing in your doorway?
Well, back in the day your dilemma was just as serious. But the age of instant information was still relegated to the realms of future technology, and God. There was an interesting person in my life. Yet I really knew nothing about her. She worked at the MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) Office on base. That's where I met her, when I was buying tickets to a movie. She was drop-dead gorgeous. Tall, 5'10", slim, long blond hair, with the most amazing chocolate brown eyes I had ever seen. And her voice was smother than turtle fur. Soft and gentle like a whispered secret. And when she smiled her entire face was involved. And the whole room brightened. It felt good in my heart just to look at her. With the addition of that satin smooth voice and her bedazzling smile, I was tangled in her. After I paid for my tickets and left the MWR, She was all I could think of. This episode in my life could have been the basis for almost any Romantic Comedy. I was completely smitten. But she barely noticed me. I was just one of a thousand sailors at the MWR Ticket window that day. And she must hear some of the best pick-up lines ever uttered. I heard three just waiting my turn in line that day. This feeling was new to me. These feelings of ??? Love? Lust? Infatuation? I didn't have a name for this feeling. I had never felt exactly this way before. The closest thing like this was the adrenalin buzz I got just before a fight. Heart rate accelerated. Breathing shallower. Stomach full of wasps. Vision focused to the extreme. Total concentration on the person in front of me. This usually ended with someone bleeding on the floor. And on more than one occasion it was me. If any man tells you "I never lost a fight." Feel free to blow the whistle and throw a penalty flag.
DDRRREEETTT! "Offensive foul! Unnecessary BS. 15 yards and a loss of down. One more of those and you're out of the game."
Well as it turned out. I found several movies I needed tickets for that required me to return to MWR. But now I only bought them one show at a time. So that way I had to be there for almost everyday at lunch time. I have always been a fan of going to see movies. And my tastes in cinema were very eclectic to say the least. And there was always something playing somewhere in town that I wanted to see. I won't bore you with the details of my endeavors to meet and marry this tenderhearted beauty. So I skip ahead a few months. And I'm standing in the living room of her apartment. The room is modestly furnished. A small sofa and matching chair at one wall. With a small dark wood coffee table in front of the sofa. A set of coasters sat idle on one corer of the table. The table had no scratches or foot marks on it. A small portable TV (24 in) atop a small hardwood table directly across from the couch. Three feet to the right of the TV was a bookcase. It was homemade. Decorative cinderblocks, with white pine 1x14" planks stacked to form 5 shelves. The carpet was unworn and unstained. The room was immaculate. No clutter. No dust. Like a set of Dress Whites, standing by for Admiral's Inspection. Even the books were dressed to the front edge of the shelves. This room spoke volumes about the person who lived here. Neat. Organized. Meticulous attention to fine detail. Not big on entertaining crowds. But warm and friendly. Not cold and sterile.
Was I standing in the room of Laura Petrie or Lizzy Borden? The Information Super-Highway had not been invented by Al Gore yet. Tartar sauce, IBM hadn't even invented the PC yet. So my best bet was to take a look at the bookcase. So I asked "May I look at your books?" You can tell a lot about a person by the books they own. But not if you are not well read yourself. Otherwise you may as well be standing in front of the magazine rack at the local Eckerd's Drug Store. I have been an insatiable reader since age 5. So when she said "Sure." I began my inquisition.
The were a couple versions of "The Holy Bible" No problem. I wasn't a believer. But I was familiar with the story. There were a dozen or so Agatha Christie Murder Mysteries. Some of the classics and a couple Dean Koontz novels. There were some by a relatively new author named Stephen King. And on the bottom shelf was a gathering of college level text books. I will never forget the title of the one on the far right of the shelf. It stunned me. The title itself was a paradox. "Elementary Principles Of Multi-Variable Calculus." I didn't know there was anything elementary about the principles of Calculus.
The books spoke of an educated, intelligent, inspired and analytical person. But since the books were not in alphabetical order, she was organized. But not compulsive.  She had nothing from the SCI-Fi genre. No Heinlein. No Asimov. No HG Wells. No Arther C. Clark. She had nothing by my all time favorite fantasy author JRR Tolkien. But she had some fantasy novels I had never read. By an author I had heard of and who was a friend and contemporary of Tolkien, named CS Lewis. So it looked like she was a keeper. And I just proof read this to her.